Battle of the Nile

The Battle of the Nile (1-3 August 1798) was a major naval battle of the Egyptian Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars that occurred when Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson's British fleet of 15 ships destroyed the French fleet of Francois-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers as it was anchored in Alexandria harbor at Aboukir Bay. The battle came at the end of a great chase between Napoleon Bonaparte's 17-ship French invasion fleet and Nelson's 15-ship Mediterranean fleet, and the British chose to engage the French in shallow water. The British managed to cut the French fleet into several portions using Nelson's "pell-mell" strategy, and the French fleet was trapped in a crossfire. Admiral Brueys d'Aigalliers was killed in the battle, and 4 French ships were destroyed and 9 captured; the French suffered 5,000 casualties, while the British lost only around 900 men and no ships. The battle was a decisive British victory, as it left Bonaparte stranded in Egypt and encouraged the other nations of Europe to form a new coalition against France.